Transportation ministry officials more concerned about collisions in fall

By Jennifer Saltman, The Province

Originally published: September 16, 2013

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

VANCOUVER — As Harry Mah cruised along Highway 3 just outside Osoyoos with the sun high in the clear, blue sky, he took a moment to look out over the lake in the distance.

It was July 19 and Mah was just about to start a two-week motorcycle trip with a friend. He was thinking about his uneventful ride up from the Lower Mainland.

When he dragged his gaze back to the road, a deer seemed to have materialized in front of his bike.

"I don’t know how it got so fast across two lanes of traffic and right in front of me," Mah says. "All I could do was hang on for dear life."

Mah’s Harley-Davidson touring bike hit the deer at about 80 km/h, splattering the animal across the front of his bike and Mah himself. Mah avoided hitting the brakes and fought to keep his motorcycle upright until it stalled, allowing him to drift to a stop.

"I was in shock," Mah says. "Thank God I had a big bike."

His motorcycle was un-driveable, but Mah limped away from the accident with only a minor injury to his right leg.

"I was fortunate," he says. "It’s a story I lived to tell."

As the weather begins to cool and fall sets in, B.C.’s highways become easy pathways for travelling wildlife, and dangerous obstacles for human travellers especially in some areas of the province.

What many of the high-collision areas have in common are physical characteristics such as good forage, proximity to a water source – particularly attractive after a dry summer like the one we just had – and long, wide stretches of road that are kept clear year round.

"It all depends on the type of species and time of year and climate we’re experiencing in the province," says Leonard Sielecki, wildlife and environmental issues specialist for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

During the fall, a number of factors come into play, including the biological rhythms of animals.

"It’s a natural phenomenon that we’ve been observing for decades and it’s one of the times we’re most concerned about wildlife collisions," Sielecki says.

The rut, or mating season, for deer takes place during October and November and the animals are responding to their natural urges and less likely to pay attention to their surroundings. Deer account for 80 per cent of collisions involving animals. Bighorn sheep rut at around the same time.

Bears are in the final stages of preparing for winter hibernation. There is a depletion of natural food sources at higher elevations near the end of summer which causes bears to move into the valley bottoms in search of food. Elk and moose collisions peak in the winter.

Fall is also a dangerous time on the roads because inclement weather reduces visibility and the sun rises later and sets earlier, leaving more hours of darkness when animals are active.

Drivers can reasonably expect to encounter wildlife on just about any B.C. road, but some areas in particular are considered hot spots for collisions involving animals.

The southern interior of B.C. – the Kootenays in particular – is the area that consistently sees the highest number of collisions with wildlife: 55 per cent of all incidents in the province.

"It’s good habitat for deer in those areas," says biologist Gayle Hesse, who is the co-ordinator of the Wildlife Collision Prevention Program. According to figures from the Insurance Corp. of B.C., from 2008 to 2012 the southern interior saw 21,800 crashes involving animals (both domestic and wildlife) resulting in six fatalities and 850 people injured.

Compare that to the Lower Mainland, where there were 4,870 incidents, resulting in 178 injuries and no recorded fatalities.

Deer collisions are also an issue on Highway 3 through the Okanagan.

In the northern region, moose are the concern. A mature bull moose can weigh 450 to 500 kilograms and stand nearly two metres tall at the shoulder – higher than the hood of most cars. The animal’s legs bear the brunt of an impact and the body can slide over the hood and land on the windshield or roof, seriously injuring or killing the occupants. They’re also very difficult to see at night.

Hesse said she’s been told that hitting a moose is like slamming into a brick wall at 100 km/h. Highway 16 from the Alberta border to Terrace and Highway 97 from Quesnel to Fort St. John are areas where drivers are likely to see moose.

On Vancouver Island, deer are a year-round concern because of the mild climate, but Highway 14 toward Sooke is somewhere drivers should be particularly careful.

It can be difficult to pinpoint where drivers are most likely to encounter animals on the road because animals are always on the move.

Says Hesse: "The landscape changes and animals will adjust their movement patterns to that."